Understanding the language of power, and practicing the language of care.
Hi. I'm Elana. For the past 30 years, I have been working on the question of how we can make our cultures and societies better for the people in them. I am increasingly concerned about practices that are hurtful, oppressive, abusive, and even violent in both physical and non-physical ways. I believe that we can and should be engaging with one another with care, compassion, and an appreciation of our shared humanity. In order to do that, I use many tools at my disposal. I research, study, listen, write, work, speak, engage, collaborate, and build bridges. Here on my site, you can explore my work and platforms. Take a look around, and feel free to reach out to me if you would like to chat, learn more, or work together.
More about Elana
Long before Elana wrote about the toxic tactics of our politics, she spent years working directly with survivors of severe emotional abuse. That is where Elana first learned, decades ago, to recognize the anatomy of a verbal attack, the way words are used to control, silence, and diminish another person. Everything since has traced those same patterns outward, from private relationships to schools, communities, and the culture at large.
Elana has spent decades watching how language works up close, studying how words create hierarchy and how they might create dignity instead. Across eight books, she has traced these patterns through very different worlds, from Orthodox Jewish men navigating an egalitarian age to the cultural war on women's bodies, the dynamics of abuse, and, most recently in Toxic Tactics, the everyday political language that has learned to lie, bully, and gaslight without consequence.
Two of Elana's books won the National Jewish Book Award from the Jewish Book Council, When Rabbis Abuse was named Best Jewish Nonfiction by Hey Alma, and Masala Mamas won a Gourmand World Cookbook Award. Elana's writing appears in The Atlantic, Slate, Haaretz, The Forward, Lilith, The Jerusalem Report, and beyond. She holds a PhD in anthropology, gender studies, and education.
Alongside the writing, Elana has led national feminist organizations, taught across three countries, and founded the Jewish Feminist Academy and Lioness Books. In 2019 she founded the Kol Hanashim women's party, and in 2020 she ran for Knesset. Today Elana writes the Substack The Roar, co-hosts the podcast Women Ending War, and works with NGOs and women's-rights organizations, helping them sharpen their vision and strategy. Elana also speaks and consults with groups who want to recognize toxic language and build something more humane in its place.
Through all of it, the goal is the same. Building more compassionate societies.